GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization has warned that “the worst is yet ahead of us” in the coronavirus outbreak, raising new alarm bells about the pandemic just as many countries are beginning to ease restrictive measures.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the United States rose by almost 2,000 in the past 24 hours to reach 40,661 on Sunday, a tally from Johns Hopkins University showed. The rise in deaths, by 1,997, is marginally above the 1,891 which Johns Hopkins data showed a day earlier for the previous 24-hour period to Saturday.
Coronavirus deaths in New York remain “horrifically high,” even as some projections of the state’s outbreak suggest it may be on the verge of a “descent,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. On Sunday, Cuomo said the state plans to roll out antibody testing this week to determine who has already been infected, conducting the “largest survey of any state population that has been done.” The antibody tests will give the state its “first true snapshot” of how many people in the state have been infected with Covid-19, Cuomo said.
As cases related to the novel coronavirus continue to strain hospitals, doctors face difficult choices about rationing scarce medical resources like ventilators – choices that will likely determine who lives and who dies.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Novartis have reached an agreement to allow the Swiss pharmaceutical company to proceed with a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
A top physician at the Baystate Health medical system in Western Massachusetts says he was questioned by the FBI as he was buying badly needed personal protective equipment, offering a detailed glimpse into the difficulties faced by hospitals as they try to navigate supply shortages amid the coronavirus pandemic.